This invention relates generally to electronic organs and more particularly to an electronic organ including integrated circuitry for generating harmony signals within an octave (within a twelve note range) above a melody note being played on the upper manual of the electronic organ. The harmony signals are played through the upper manual within the octave above the melody note being played on the upper manual and include notes corresponding to chording notes being played on the lower manual and the melody note.
It has always been desirable from a musical standpoint for an organist to include harmony notes which are both below the melody being played upon the upper manual and related to the chords being played upon the lower manual. Although playing such harmony signals requires great manual dexterity and concentration, many professional organists frequently use the technique to enhance and complement the music being played. An amateur organist is rarely able to master such a complicated playing technique but, nevertheless, would like to enhance the music being played to the same degree as the professional organist.
Various automatic harmony systems have been developed for providing the beginning organist with the capability of playing harmony notes below the melody being played. However, these available automatic harmony systems are often times complex and cumbersome arrangements of mechanical switching devices for generating the harmony signals in response to the depression of keys on both the lower manual or accompaniment manual and the upper manual or melody manual. Electronic circuitry including digital circuitry has been devised to replace the mechanical switching devices and to generate harmony signals in electronic organs. These automatic harmony systems enable the organist to perform what otherwise is a complex maneuver of incorporating harmony signals on the upper manual in the octave below the melody note being played and to co-ordinate these harmony signals with the notes being played on the lower manual.
The harmony signals provided by the above automatic harmony systems are in the octave below the melody note and tend to "muddy" or degrade the sounds generated by an electronic organ since lower pitch harmony signals are being added and the harmonics from the individual notes being sounded on the upper manual tend to clash as the notes get lower in pitch. Accordingly, Application Ser. No. 163,714 filed June 27, 1980, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application, provides harmony signals in response to lower manual chording signals and an upper manual melody note with the harmony signals corresponding to the chording signals but being generated through the upper manual approximately one octave above the upper manual melody note. These high harmony signals delay the organ tone from becoming "muddy" until lower pitch melody notes are played since higher pitch harmony signals are being added. The use of such high harmony signals extends the effective range of melody notes being played on the upper manual to include lower pitch notes.